Feb. 5 (BusinessDesk) Auckland real estate firm Barfoot & Thompsons new listings more than doubled in January from December while the average sale price fell, suggesting the citys overheated property market is luring more sellers.

Barfoot’s Auckland property listings jump 40%, average price slips

Feb. 5 (BusinessDesk) – Auckland real estate firm Barfoot & Thompson’s new listings more than doubled in January from December while the average sale price fell, suggesting the city’s overheated property market is luring more sellers.

Auckland’s biggest real estate firm listed 1,440 properties in January, the highest for that month in five years and up 40 percent from January 2012. The firm had 697 listings in December.

The average sale price last month was $600,754, the first time it has exceeded $600,000 for January. That’s up 13 percent from a year earlier and down from $624,015 in December. The average price hit a record $627,721 in November.

New listings in January outpaced the 820 properties sold by Barfoot in the month, which was a six-year high and up 20 percent from a year earlier.

Of the total properties sold, 47 percent were under $500,000 and about 16 percent below $300,000. There were 68 homes sold for more than $1 million.